Mississippi Blues Trail - Part 9

We had been patiently waiting for a window of opportunity to collect more Mississippi Blues Trail (MBT) Markers.  All markers within a days reach had already been grabbed so we needed to do an overnight trip or longer to collect new markers.  Well, hallelujah, the weather forecast looked like we would be good to go on Thursday, March 11 and return home on Saturday, March 13.  With that in mind, Wednesday evening was full of activity trying to pack a bag and sort out the scooters for a two night away from home trip.  This would be our first time overnight on the Honda ADV 150 scooters and our first time actually using the Shad top cases with the dedicated Shad liner bags.

Everything got sorted and we both found the Shad liner bags to be more than adequate to hold our clothes, walking shoes, toiletries, electronics, liquor flask, and other odds and ends.  And even better, the liners fit perfect inside the Shad top cases with room to spare!  Great!  I'm really glad we took this mini trip and now have our packing pretty much sorted out for the Scooter Cannonball Run!  I'll probably add a dry bag to the pillion seat with a cargo net and bungies for a warm coat and extra shoes or whatever.

Our plan was to leave about 7:00 am.  That didn't happen, hahahahaha!  I finally managed to get up and ready sometime around 8:00 am and we left home at 8:15 am.  After a quick splash of gas at the local corner station we were on our way!  Yippee!  For once we didn't start our ride on the Natchez Trace.  Instead we took Main Street out of town and wound around on rural county roads and two lane highways.  Eric had made a route for us and I simply followed the leader. 

Along with small two lane highways we also encountered a number of one lane backroads, my favorite!

Our route took us across Sardis Dam where we took a short booty break and enjoyed the view.  The reservoir is very low right now.

We rode several hours before we arrived at the first of many MBT markers.  Como, MS was the location for Napolian Strickland.  A cut of his fife and drum music, Black Water Rising.

Too bad the back of the sign is totally roached from weather.  But if you click on the link above, it will give you the narrative.

In addition to Napolian Strickland was a MBT marker for Fred McDowell.  You Gotta Move is the epitome of the Blues! (Note:  This song was covered by the Rolling Stones on their Sticky Fingers album!)

Como was a trifecta of MBT markers!  Otha Turner was the fife and drum legend.  Roll and Tumble is more bluesy than fife and drum.

Como, MS Post Office.

Since it was near lunch time and we hadn't any breakfast we decided to eat in Como at the Windy City Grille.  Although known for it's Deep Dish Chicago style pizza we opted to share a plate of sliders and onion rings.  Yummy!!!!

Back on the road we headed toward our next MBT marker in Senatobia.  Things got a little interesting for this marker.  We turned off the highway to get fuel and I noticed the church parking lot on the corner at the highway was full of cars and thought it odd on a Thursday mid afternoon.  Well, when we got back to the church to turn back onto the highway after getting gas the parking lot was almost empty.  Hmmmmm.....  We made a right onto the highway and noticed disco party lights in front of a fairly long line of cars.  Then we noticed the long line of cars all had their emergency lights on.  Rut Roh, apparently we got caught smack in the middle of a funeral procession!  Yikes!  What's worse is the MBT marker was at the cemetery where the procession was headed.  Oh no!  I was mortified! When we reached the cemetery we just pulled into the exit lane and the balance of the procession went through the enter lane.  We did get a few odd looks, hahahaha!

And we did score the marker!  Jessie Mae Hemphill was our MBT marker at the Senatobia Cemetery.   She was a colorful performer and man, can she sing the Blues!  Go Back to Your Used To Be 

Sad, another weather roached back side of the marker.

The Senatobia Memorial Cemetery.

Along our route we found a surprise bonus!  A mini Muffler Man 😊

From here we moved on to another MBT maker in Senatobia.  Sid Hemphill, grandfather to Jessie Mae.  An early version of John Henry by Sid Hemphill.

Bonus score!  We found a Mississippi Country Music Trail marker!  Whoopee!!  O. B. McClinton had a series of top songs including Don't Let the Green Grass Fool You.  A bit of a departure from the Blues 😉

Whew!  We were hoovering up MBT markers like crazy and still had more to go before we would call it a day.  Onward, trusty scooters to Coldwater, MS for the Tate County Blues marker.  R.L. Burnside singing Poor Black Mattie.  So many artists came from Coldwater, MS.  Who knew?

From Coldwater it was on to Hernando, MS (Hello Mark & Karen!) where we located the Beale Town Bound MBT marker.  Several artists are showcased on this marker.  I chose a song by Robert Wilkins that was covered by the Rolling Stones, The Prodigal Son.  I love that I'm finding so many Blues tunes that have subsequently been covered by popular bands.  Goes to show that so much of our recent music has it's roots in the Mississippi Blues.

Just behind the Beale Town Bound marker was this awesome, old, tin barn.

Yet another marker in Hernando was the Dickinson Family.   What a surprise!  Click on the link to see why the surprise.  A lot of James Dickinson's music was more rock than blues in my humble opinion.  But I found this great blues tune, Down in Mississippi along with many others.  (Actually, I'm listening to him as I write this and I'm finding more and more Soul and Blues, definitely worth checking out.)

Don'tcha just love these little Honda ADV 150 scooters?  We sure do 😁

Another not MBT surprise, a Blue Star Memorial marker.  I love finding these all over the country.

Our next stop was in Nesbit, MS for the Joe Callicott MBT marker.  Down To The River by Joe Callicott.  Such a sweet voice.

Just a super cute little cabin across from the Joe Callicott MBT marker.

Our next stop was in Horn Lake, MS to grab the Big Walter Horton MBT marker.  Wowza!  What a fantastic harmonica player!  Check out "Skip It".

The Big Bell at Horn Lake, MS. (Still ring-able with a rope even!)

Now we were crossing the top of Mississippi to the West.  It was a hop, skip, and a jump to the Memphis Minnie marker.  This was the beginning of our journey down Old Hwy 61.  It was located at a church graveyard way out in nowhere!  A true legend of the Blues, Minnie had many hits including Me and My Chauffeur.

Along with the MBT marker we found her gravestone.  She was well loved.

Not far from Memphis Minnie's marker we came across smoke covering the road!  Small grass fire along side of the road.  Maybe a careless cigarette?  Weird!

I know - we still have more markers to grab before we get to our hotel!  Huge day of riding the scooters all over rural Mississippi.  Our next stop was the Gateway to the Blues Museum in Tunica, MS.

There we found the Highway 61 Blues MBT marker.  A number of artists wrote songs about Highway 61 including Highway 61 Blues by Mississippi Fred McDowell.

We went inside the visitor center and checked it out.  The museum was $10 per person and it was late in the day so we took a pass on the museum.  Maybe another time.  Even if you don't do the museum, the Visitor Center is well worth the stop and look around.  They have some fantastic murals on the walls.  Recognize this?  Yup, the infamous Crossroads!  More on that in the next blog 😉

We were both excited to find the next MBT marker for Son House. But, it wasn't to be found!!  We rode back and forth several times at the location but there was no marker .😢 Son House was one of the preeminent blues artists.  Some good stuff here Death Letter Blues.

Well, darn it!  What to do but move on to the next MBT marker which was the Hollywood Cafe on Old Hwy 61.  Originally, we had planned on having lunch here but because of our late start it didn't happen.  Probably just as well.  Hamburgers start at $12, lol.   

After reading about the Hollywood Cafe and having been following the MBT for a while now I really have a new respect for the song Walking in Memphis by Marc Cohn which I have always loved.  The second link is to the same song but is later in life and he gives a bit of narrative of his meeting Muriel Davis Wilkins and Reverend Al Greene and playing at the Hollywood Cafe.  That experience led him to write the song where he found his voice and launched his career  Walking in Memphis II.  (Hint - Listen to the first then the second and it will give you goosebumps!  It's just that  awesome!).

Our next MBT was Abbay & Leatherman which was the boyhood home of Robert Johnson, a blues icon.   Here he sings Crossroad.  

This was definitely our biggest day of grabbing MBT markers!  Still more to come!  Still on Old Highway 61 our next marker was Harold "Hardface" Clanton.  While not a musician, Hardface Clanton was a businessman owning restaurants, cafes and gambling dens where he hired many of the legendary blues icons to entertain his clientele.  I chose Howlin' Wolf's Smoke Stack Lightening!

Next on Highway 61 was the MBT marker for James Cotton.  Along with being a hugely successful harmonica player, James Cotton was also a vocalist.  Cotton Crop Blues.

Down the road on Highway 61 we arrived in Lula, MS for the Livin' At Lula MBT marker. Listen to The Jelly Roll Kings play Have Mercy Baby.

 

One of our stops in rural Mississippi!

It was on to Friars Point MS for our next MBT marker, Robert Nighthawk.  One of his hits was Black Angel Blues. 

Friar's Point had more surprises in store for us!  

Still in Friar's Point, this tractor sits outside the North Delta Museum (it was closed).

At the same site we found this Mississippi Country Music Trail marker for Conway Twitty!  Conway Twitty's first number one hit, It's Only Make Believe.

The museum and a tank at Friar's Point.

A nice Veteran's Memorial at Friar's Point.

By this point we were getting pretty tired and although we still had two more markers we intended to grab today it just wasn't going to happen.  Fortunately we were only fifteen minutes or so from Clarksdale which was to be our home for the next two nights.  So, rather than continue on the MBT, we aimed the scooters toward Clarksdale and the Up-Town Motor Inn.

We chose this motel for it's proximity to a large number of MBT markers in Clarksdale.  By staying here we could walk to quite a few markers.  The reviews were all over the place so when we pulled up I asked to first see a room before we committed.  Smart move!  Hahahahaha, it was just fine.  Fresh paint and carpet, clean bathroom, tacky art on the walls, all lamps functional, good water pressure, nice towels and a microwave and mini fridge.  What more could one want?  Oh, the bed was nice too along with good pillows.  Maybe the bad reviews are from rooms that haven't been rehabbed, I dunno.  I thought it was fine and the location was perfect!

Our room for the next two nights.  We engaged the fork locks on the scooters, covered them up and cable locked the back wheel of my scooter to the front wheel of Eric's scooter.  I'm sure they would have been fine without all the fuss but hey, better safe than sorry!  Since this was our first overnight with the scooters we don't have a routine yet.  I think we just found one 😉

The only down side was the ice machine was broken 😕.  Oh well!  Eric made the supreme sacrifice and scootered to Walmart on the other side of town to pick up dinner for us.  He smartly chose a Chef salad and bought some extra deli chicken for himself and got me a Stouffers Mac & Cheese.  Yay for motel microwaves and me bringing cutlery, salt & pepper and collapsible 16 oz. cups! Oh, and napkins!  I always have a stash of napkins somewhere, either in the jacket pockets or on the scooter,  Yippee!  So, when Eric got back with our dinner I told him the ice machine was broken.  What a trooper.  He turned around on the scooter and went back down the road to the corner store to get us a big bag of ice.  Now cocktail time can commence!

We had a pleasant evening, had cocktails, ate dinner, watched a bit of boob tube and called it a night.  Tomorrow is more MBT markers so stay tuned for the next blog installment!  I have a few surprises for you 😄.

Today we scored 19 MBT markers and 2 Country Music Trail markers along with a few Mississippi Historical signs and some other goodness.  Wow!  It almost felt like we were on Rally pace 😁.  Today was our biggest day yet on the MBT and we have a boatload more to get!

The Honda ADV 150 scooters ran like the little tractors they are - just perfect.  We got a bit of gavel/dirt road riding in along with many lovely rural highways and roads.  Just a few miles on 4 lane highways where we managed to hold 60 mph for the most part.  Eric did a fantastic job routing us to the markers and we only had to backtrack twice 😏 where we missed a turn.  Our Shad top cases fully loaded worked just as advertised with absolutely no issues.  The weather was perfect, not too hot and not cold at all.  I'm calling this ride a 10!

Thanks for following along with our Scooter adventures.  More to come!

Cheers,

Cletha & Eric